Chess Olympiad: Celebrating The Winners ★
It’s time to check out the pictures of the awarding/closing ceremonies. China brings home gold for both the Open and Women’s section.
Vietnam too much for Philippines to handle in the Final Round
Unfortunately, for team Philippines, the streak was cut to 5 wins only, as Vietnam was too much for them to handle in the final round of Batumi Chess Olympiad 2018 (Open). All games ended decisively, and Vietnam won 3-1. Thus, Vietnam finished 7th in the ranking, while Philippines settled for 37th place — still a satisfactory performance considering they’re 54th seed.
China wins Batumi Chess Olympiad 2018 (Open)
When the dusts finally settled, 3 teams: USA, China and Russia, tied for the top place. And just like in the previous Olympiad, the grand winner was settled via a tiebreak system — no tiebreak matches whatsoever. A karma, indeed, for USA – just as how they won the last Olympiad, China dethroned them via other teams’ performances, and not necessarily by their own efforts.
Philippines on a five game winning streak – Batumi 2018 Open
And so now Philippines is in 19th place right before the final round. It’s quite a possibility that they finish in the top 10 if they beat Vietnam in the final round.
Batumi 2018: USA vs. China – More Than Just a Trade War
USA won against Armenia and Poland lost to China in the penultimate round of Batumi Chess Olympiad 2018. Russia even routed England in the 10th round to earn them at least a shot at the title.
Right before the final round, USA and China are tied for first place. It will be directly decided as they face each other in the final round, unless they draw their match, which will give Russia, France and Poland the chance to join the fray.
Philippines wins over Zambia – R9 Batumi 2018
It must have been Philippines’ strategy, after all, to lose their games to Croatia, Estonia and Lebanon in Rounds 3, 4 and 5, respectively, in order to breeze through their matches towards the end of the tournament.
With this Round 9 win, Philippines (Seed No. 54) is now at number 31 in the ranking, and is set to face Ecuador (Seed No. 78) in the penultimate 10th round.
If things go well, Philippines might even land in the top 20 at the end of this Olympiad.
Upset in Round 9 – Poland over USA (Batumi 2018)
The 11th seed Poland pulled a surprise in Round 9 as they stunned the top seed USA into submission. Hikaru Nakamura was the calamity at Board 3.
Yeah, 151 ratings difference — upset, indeed!
Poland is now the sole leader at the end of Round 9. Two more rounds to go!
Here’s how the upset happened:
Philippines vs. Zambia
This should be easy for PHI in the 9th Round of the Batumi Olympiad (Open).
